The present invention relates generally to pierced earrings, and is particularly concerned with a novel and unique construction for the post member which forms a part of such earrings.
Generally speaking, pierced earrings comprise an ornament of one form or another to which an elongated post is connected, as by soldering or the like, the post being adapted to extend through the pierced opening in the wearer's ear lobe so that the ornament is positioned adjacent the outer surface of the wearer's lobe. The inner end of the post projects beyond the inner surface of the wearer's lobe and the earring is retained in its mounted position by means of a clutch member which frictionally and resiliently engages the exposed inner end of the post. In order to prevent infection and contamination to the wearer's ear, the earring post is usually constructed of precious metal, such as silver or gold. In fact, there are governmental regulations relating to the materials of which earring posts are constructed in order to minimize the danger of infection or contamination to the wearer.
It will be understood that the conventional earring post is of extremely small size, usually comprising a diameter of somewhere in the range of 0.035 inches. The length of the conventional post would normally be somewhere in the neighborhood of three-eighths of an inch. In dealing with a post of this minute size, the obvious way to construct such a method is of a solid material, whether it be gold, silver, or some other acceptable hypollergenic material. Due, however, to the recent tremendous increases in price of gold and silver, the cost of gold and silver earring posts, as small as the posts are, has become a significant factor and hence the purpose of the present invention is to provide a precious metal earring post that is still basically of the same size as a conventional solid post, but which uses significantly less metal and which nevertheless possesses sufficient structural strength so as to be effective.
The present invention achieves the foregoing objective by providing a precious metal earring post that is of hollow, tubular construction, thereby significantly lessening the amount of precious metal present in each post.
It is therefore a primary objective of the present invention to provide a precious metal earring post that is of hollow, tubular construction but which is still of substantially the same size as conventional solid posts.
Another object is the provision of a hollow, tubular precious metal post that has a generally rounded closed end at one extremity thereof to permit insertion of the post through the wearer's lobe without any discomfort.
Another object of the present invention is the provision of a hollow post of the character described wherein the extremity of the post opposite to the closed end is open and may be provided with an integral outwardly extending circular flange for facilitating securement of the post to an ornament.
Still another object of the present invention is the provision of a hollow precious metal earring post of the character described wherein the inner surface of the hollow post is coated with a thin layer of a solder-flux material whereby when heat is applied to solder the aforesaid flange to an ornament, the solder coating will flow to the point of junction to provide the solder necessary to secure the flange to the ornament.